As far as Rawson Market is concerned, Bradford Council seems to have dug itself a great big hole that it is now virtually unable to get out of - at least until the end of the year. The Chamber of Trade has pulled no punches in its letter to Council leader Ian Greenwood accusing the authority of mismanagement of the finances of the scheme.

The plan itself was well-intentioned. It was reasonable to think of funding the market improvements for which the traders had been clamouring from the proceeds of the sale of the Vicar Lane site. But the timing has proved disastrous.

With hindsight, the Council should have made sure the money was in the bank before it moved the traders out and threatened their livelihoods and those of shopkeepers in the surrounding area. Instead, it jumped the gun on the expectation that the money would come in but without knowing when. The result is blight at the top end of town in strong contrast to the good work which has been going on elsewhere.

Councillor Greenwood has said he will look at ways of rejigging the capital programme to find the money for the market. But where can it come from, particularly given the cost of the forthcoming schools reorganisation?

We must hope, as we have said before, that the Vicar Lane sale goes ahead without further delay and that work can start on the market post haste. If it does not, Rawson Market could soon become a fading memory - part of Bradford's vanished past rather than, as was the intention, an important part of its future.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.